Queer
Queering the Narrative: The Evolution of LGBTQ+ Themes in Hindi Cinema
Despite the progress made, Hindi cinema still faces challenges in accurately representing the diversity of LGBTQ+ experiences. Critiques have been raised regarding the tendency to prioritize cisgender, upper-class narratives.
By Taarina Therese Chandiramani
“They’re shoe shoes, silly!” A Hip-hop Journey into Queerness
In my rap lyrics, I try to focus on the undercurrents of resilience, hope, and the unwavering spirit of resistance in the face of struggles.
By Chandan Jyoti Konwar
Identity’s Dance
From silver screens to pages penned,
Our identities explored, where journeys never end.
By Shruti Sharma
March 18, 2024
Interview – Prarthana Prasad
Entertainment should aim to inspire, comfort, reflect and express. Even if something violent earns big at the box office, it doesn’t justify its creation.
By Shikha Aleya
February 15, 2024
Nishit Saran: The Pioneering Indian Queer Filmmaker The World Forgot
While Nishit Saran’s iconoclasm loomed large in his lifetime, his oeuvre as a pioneering queer filmmaker and activist seems to have been largely obliterated.
By Parth Pant
February 15, 2024
Beyond Romance: A-Spec Identities in Heartstopper
The assumption that everyone experiences love and attraction in a similar manner is deeply alienating and harmful for the a-spec community.
By Aashi Singh
February 15, 2024
For the Joy of It
Of course, I knew I wasn’t the only person in the world writing about Sherlock Holmes. I, however, thought I was the only one in the world writing about them like that. You know.
Romantically.
By Saswati
January 11, 2024
अपना किरदार निभाना
In this month’s issue of Play and Sexuality, Wesley D’Souza recounts the time his school put up a production of The Pied Piper of Hamelin, his preparations for its audition, and how the process was intertwined with an exploration and acceptance of his sexuality.
By Wesley D'Souza
January 11, 2024
‘Fire’ and Sexuality
Fire served as a seminal piece of media in my life for that reason, not only because of its queer themes and normalisation of LGBTQ+ relationships but because of how it normalises the pursuit of pleasure as a fundamental part of us, and not something we should be ashamed of.
By Katie Yenna
August 10, 2023
The Anatomy of a Queer Body
I smell the judgement
and the disappointment
of my parents as I enter the hall;
it stinks of their silence on my sexuality.
By Gokul Prabhu
June 16, 2023
Brushstrokes: Hotel Rooms
For the last seven years, I have been working on a body of work titled Hotel Rooms themed around fluid male sexuality, mental health, queerness, and challenging deep-rooted societal gender binaries.
June 16, 2023
Sport and LGBTQ+ rights – a fantasy?
The spotlight that the world’s biggest sporting event (arguably) has along with the inherent gender and sexuality bias in sport come together in how sportspersons and athletes are both perceived and perceive themselves in mainstream and social media.
By Tanya Kini
April 6, 2023
Drag As Mapping Culture, Fun, And Resistance Onto Our Bodies
Drag is more than a form of entertainment or art form or a form of comedic release, it’s the realization of the fun of being queer or having a queer perspective.
By Rajeev Anand Kushwah
Breaking new ground: Maja Ma’s portrayal of queerness in a traditional Indian family
This reconciliation between Pallavi’s public (seemingly) heterosexual and closeted lesbian identities points to a distinctly Indian way of avoiding polarities through a new social arrangement where both identities are allowed the space to flourish.
By Juhi Sidharth and Chaitanya Ravi
At Chattar Manzil
We are two boys in our early twenties
who can read touch like that, who have broken into
a 200-year-old mansion, without permission,
to see from above where people like them go
after 377 has been read down only for those
who can stay behind closed doors — in the custody
of cheap hotels, or houses that welcome nights
with the sound of latches closing.
By Aditya Vikram
February 16, 2023